It never ends....I am having flashbacks!

The picture is Abby's mugshot.

I will explain. You see, the paperwork never ends. When we returned home it was recommended that we obtain Indiana birth certificates and register the adoption with the State of Indiana. We agreed that it was a good idea and hired an attorney to do this (since it was not something we could do our own). The director of our agency is an attorney and is taking care of this for us (and we appreciate it very much!!!).

Another issue was/is Social Security cards. We went to the Social Security Office on New Year's Eve, figuring that there would be very few people there. We were right. There was only one person waiting. We took the applications for Social Security cards and all of the required paperwork per the instructions (and per information from our agency). The lady behind the counter disagreed and said we needed Indiana birth certificates. I showed her in the directions where it said the paperwork we provided would suffice and she took it just to humor us and said she would be in touch if more was needed. Well, we received a call. She needed another form of identification for the girls. So I will move on to the next issue, which corresponds with this one....

Between applying for Social Security cards and receiving the call that more documentation was needed, we received the girls' Certificates of Citizenship. They are very official and came in a huge envelope. Inside it was another envelop that said "A message from the President of the United States" printed on it. Inside that envelope was a letter from George W. Bush congratulating each girl regarding their new status as a citizen (it was a form letter but who cares, it is official and cool), their official Certificate of Citizenship and an instruction sheet telling you what to do if a name is misspelled or if you change your name.

The good news is that the Certificate of Citizenship is a document that the Social Security Office can use to process everything for their SS cards! The bad news is that they misspelled Abby's middle name on the Certificate of Citizenship. So, here we go again MORE STINKING PAPERWORK!!!!!!!!!! For the record, her middle name is NOT LuLu. And for the record again, the CIS office is the same office that we had a hard time getting our I-171h form from and the same office that forgot to forward it to China and which resulted in momentary heart failure while we were in China (read previous posts) when the mistake was discovered. (Sidenote - I have a theory why there are so many illegal aliens...if we have this much trouble, I cannot image what they must go through in order to become legal citizens...)

To correct the Citizenship and Immigration Service's (CIS) mistake, we had to do the following....send copies of the paperwork they already have (which they looked at and still spelled her name wrong originally), a two page application telling them what THEY did wrong, two color photos closeup with white background (thus the mug shot at the top of the post and I have a hunch will not work, I just have a gut feeling they will want passport photos even though it did not say that) AND a written explanation from us telling them what they did wrong. We are being punished because of their mistake...I love government. But they were nice enough to say on the application that the $380 fee would be waived if it is their mistake, how sweet.

SO, I went back to the Social Security Office today. This time I waited 45 minutes in order to stand at the counter for 1 minute for them to copy Laney's Certificate of Citizenship. After that I went to the post office and mailed all of the paperwork to the CIS to correct Abby's Certificate so I can give it to the Social Security Office so we can get a Social Security number.

And I almost forgot...just to add salt to the wound, our friend Lynn, who was in our China travel group, used a different Social Security Office. She simply used her daughter's Visa and Adoption Registration form from China (all things we provided to our Social Security Office) and was able to get a Social Security card. Something is wrong with this pictutre, but I will stop rambling, can you tell all of this just bugs the snot out of me? I just keep repeating I love government, I love government, I love government....

You may ask why we are so concerned about the Social Security numbers...well, as you are aware, they are needed frequently now days to function in our society and Social Security numbers equal other things that occur on or before April 15th.

So, here we are again, we wait, praying that the stars align so that all of this is resolved. But during this wait, we have two wonderful little girls to keep us company to make us forget about all of the stupidity and bureaucracy.

Thanks for checking in...tune in for more interesting posts from Rett in the near future. Oh, and here are some pics.

Fun with the diaper box!

Kyler, our other daughter, modeling one of the girls' birthday tiaras.

Lunchtime, ravioli and beets, YUM?!!! (below)